After all, the 23-year-old Fàbregas has done his time at Arsenal. Seven seasons under Wenger is a long time and he has never hidden his love for Barcelona, the club he supported as a boy and where he grew up before his move to North London shortly after his 16th birthday. Why shouldn’t he want to return home?

Things may well pan out that way. Or they may take an entirely different turn. Whatever else one may think of Fàbregas, there is no question that he is intelligent and mature well beyond his years. And he realises that, at this moment, with Barcelona close to electing a new president to replace Joan Laporta, he is a useful electoral tool. Why not use that to your advantage? Why not push the envelope and get an idea of what you are worth on the open market? Who knows? It may push Wenger to change tack and make some serious investment in the North London club, something he has not done in recent years.

The sense is that there is more to this than meets the eye. Not least because when Fàbregas looks at the Barcelona line-up, he may well wonder where — and if — he fits in alongside Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, his Spain team-mates. And he may conclude that Barcelona’s interest in him has more to do with regaining prestige and helping a candidate to secure the presidency than it does with footballing reasons.

The original plan was that Fàbregas would slot into midfield alongside Xavi, with a holding midfield player — such as Sergio Busquets or Yaya Touré — behind and Iniesta shunted out to the wing, where he would form a front three with Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But things have changed. David Villa, the Valencia striker, appears likely to join Barcelona.

If one assumes that Villa will go straight into the starting line-up and that Xavi, Messi, Iniesta and one holding midfield player are also definites, there is one slot left in Pep Guardiola’s XI. One place for Fàbregas and Ibrahimovic to fight over, not to mention the likes of Bojan Krkic and Pedro Rodriguez. The obvious solution is selling Ibrahimovic, except that given his poor season and a £6 million-a-year contract that has four years to run, that will not be easy to do.

It is very crowded in the Barcelona front six and that situation is unlikely to change soon. Fàbregas, ever rational and calculating, realises this. It is unthinkable that he will move without seeking some kind of reassurance regarding Guardiola’s plans. And, given the uncertainty over the elections, the club may find it difficult to provide these assurances, at least in the short term.

Barcelona want to move quickly in making their first big signing of the summer, ideally before the World Cup. Fàbregas is unlikely to be in a similar hurry. Neither are Arsenal.